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Say hey, baseball: Cardinals first to 20 wins, NL Central lags behind
Wednesday morning’s baseball finds the Cardinals cruising, Mookie Betts mashing and Bartolo Colon hitting his own helmet.
Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
★★★
You knew the Cardinals were going to be good in 2015, but there were supposed to be teams who could challenge them. Instead, the Pirates are under .500 after a month of play, the Brewers have fired their manager and are looking to sell off pitchers who could bring them prospects and the Cubs aren’t yet in a position to catch the Cards. They will be a frightening team to face someday, and it could be soon, but all the pieces either aren’t in place or haven’t developed all the way yet.
Meanwhile, St. Louis has won eight in a row, are the first team to reach 20 wins, and the only one to not yet lose nine games. In fact, they haven’t even lost seven, and their .769 win percentage not only has them 6½ games up on second-place Chicago already, but is over 100 points better than the next-best in the majors. Second-best belongs to the Astros, by the way, as we’re sure you guessed it would when you wrote out your pre-season predictions.
What’s worrisome for the Cards’ opponents is that they aren’t even hitting their max potential. Yadier Molina and Jason Heyward aren’t hitting, so even if Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday see their torrid start slow, St. Louis can make up for it elsewhere. Losing Adam Wainwright hurt, but the Cardinals still have John Lackey, Michael Wacha, Lance Lynn and a permanent rotation space for Carlos Martinez. Tyler Lyons not working out? Not to worry: Jaime Garcia and prospect Marco Gonzales are rehabbing and can vie for the fifth spot soon. So, good luck, the rest of the NL Central. It’s early, but you better start digging yourselves out now.
- Jered Weaver has dealt with declining velocity for a few years now, but it’s a battle pitchers eventually lose. Is Weaver now on the losing end?
- Let’s rank the baseball records and milestones we want to see fall.
- Mookie Betts broke up a no-hitter with a homer, then hit another one for good measure. After a slow, unlucky start, Betts is batting .289/.353/.533 with seven extra-base hits in his last 11 games. The Red Sox will need more of this while David Ortiz tries to get going.
- Bartolo Colon swung and lost his helmet again, except this time, he hit his helmet.
- Zack Greinke is a pitcher, but one who respects the beauty of the bat flip. Here’s Greinke performing his own!
- Wondering why Mike Moustakas is suddenly a force at the plate? Ben Lindbergh wrote about one part of it, which is Moose’s recent ability to beat the shift.
- Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that his team will “follow the contract” when it comes to giving A-Rod his milestone bonuses. That’s a fancy way of saying they still don’t intend to pay him for his 660th homer.
- The Giants are looking for an upgrade at third base, as they have suddenly realized they entrusted the position to Casey McGehee.
- Yeah, Jason Heyward is struggling, but don’t bail on him yet, Cardinals fans.
- The Braves picked up Cameron Maybin from the Padres when they sent Craig Kimbrel west, and he very well could be the center fielder they need.
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